It’s An Outrage That Parents Have To Teach Their Black Children How To Avoid Being Killed By A Cop

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A grand jury in Staten Island voted yesterday not to indict New York City police officer Daniel Pantaleo in the killing of Eric Garner, a black man who died after being placed in a chokehold by the officer. His crime? Selling untaxed cigarettes. Every parent should care when there are massive failures in our justice system. But some parents have to care more than others, because yet another grand jury decision has proven that their children are not safe. Parents of black children have to literally train their kids how to navigate interactions with police so they don’t end up dead. That is tragic.

Every parent should care about raising their child in a just world. Every parent should be disgusted by those who would defend the extreme violence of the NYPD that day — when, because Garner dared talk back, he was placed in a chokehold that his asthmatic body could not endure. A move that is not even sanctioned by the NYPD.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ka4oKu1jo]

In a video of the arrest, Garner is seen several times shouting, “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Until his body goes limp. And to those who would say “he shouldn’t have been arguing with police,” if you don’t have the experience of being harassed daily for the color of your skin, maybe you should think twice before weighing in on that. An unarmed man arguing with police officers does not deserve to be robbed of his life — choked to death then left lying in the street – with no immediate medical attention.

The chokehold — a move that was banned by the NYPD in 1993– killed Garner. The medical examiner ruled that it was a combination of the chokehold and compression to the chest that was responsible for Garner’s death, and ruled it a homicide. A homicide caught on tape. Still, the Staten Island grand jury didn’t think there was sufficient evidence to indict. There is video of Pantaleo choking the life out of a Garner for selling untaxed cigarettes, using a tactic that was banned by the NYPD over 20 years ago. Still not enough to even bring charges against the officer. Unbelievable.

How did we get to this place where we’ve collectively decided that police officers are untouchable and have carte blanche to perpetrate the most grave of injustices — ending a person’s life who was not committing a crime anywhere near warranting a death sentence? When did uniformed police officers become judge, jury, and executioner? I’m terrified for my black child to grow up in this world. But even parents who don’t have to worry about their children being targeted should be invested in raising their kids in a world that doesn’t tolerate this type of government-sanctioned racial injustice.

My black husband knows the precautions he has to take when dealing with officers. He knows that when he gets repeatedly stopped for walking around his own neighborhood in Florida, he needs to be as polite as possible while an officer tells him he once again fits a “criminal profile” and needs to be questioned. It’s something he’ll have to teach our son to navigate as well. Parents have to teach their children how not to be hurt or harassed by police officers. Does that seem okay to anyone? It’s not.

Even the mayor of New York City admits to warning his own mixed-race son about the dangers of dealing with police. Bill DeBlasio spoke about his teenage son, in a press conference after the grand jury decision. Here’s a transcription from Gawker:

A good young man, law-abiding young man who would never think to do anything wrong. And yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we’ve had to literally train him””as families have all over this city for decades””in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him.

Our justice system is sending a message loud and clear — black men are not safe. Heck, even black children aren’t. Does anyone have any confidence that there will be an indictment against the officers who drove up to a playground and shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice for holding a real-looking toy gun, before they had even completely stopped the car?

Something has to change. Parents shouldn’t have to be terrified of people whose job it is to protect their children.

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